Assemblies in a domain - VB..NET

An assembly serves as a reusable, versionable, and self-describing building block within the Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment. Assemblies play a vital role in the structure and execution of .NET applications.

System.Reflection.Assembly

To retrieve information about the assemblies that have been loaded into the execution context of a VB.NET application domain, developers can utilize the System.Reflection.Assembly class. This class, found within the System.Reflection namespace, provides functionalities to examine and interact with assemblies, modules, members, parameters, and other entities in managed code by analyzing their metadata.

Dim _appDomain As AppDomain Dim myAssemblies() As Reflection.Assembly _appDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain myAssemblies = _appDomain.GetAssemblies

The System.Reflection namespace contains types that retrieve information about assemblies, modules, members, parameters, and other entities in managed code by examining their metadata. We use the AppDomain.GetAssemblies method to retrieve an array of Assembly objects representing the assemblies currently loaded into an application domain.

To retrieve an array of Assembly objects representing the currently loaded assemblies within an application domain, the AppDomain.GetAssemblies method can be used. This method returns an array of Assembly instances, each representing a loaded assembly within the current application domain.

By working with the Assembly class, developers can access various aspects of assemblies, including their metadata, constituent parts, and the types contained within them. The Assembly class enables exploration of assembly details and facilitates the creation of instances of the types defined within the assembly.

Full Source VB.NET
Public Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim _appDomain As AppDomain Dim myAssemblies() As Reflection.Assembly Dim myAssembly As Reflection.Assembly _appDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain myAssemblies = _appDomain.GetAssemblies For Each myAssembly In myAssemblies MsgBox(myAssembly.FullName) Next End Sub End Class

Conclusion

Through the utilization of the System.Reflection.Assembly and related classes, developers can effectively work with assemblies in VB.NET. These classes provide a comprehensive set of tools to load, explore, and interact with assemblies, enabling developers to build robust and extensible applications on the .NET platform.